More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
“But…I’ve been giving you black coffee.” “And I have been hating it.” I frown. “Are you sure you don’t take it black? Like a real man?” His eyebrow lifts. “I wasn’t aware of the proven correlation between virility and coffee intake.”
“I tried to…” It’s embarrassing. I’d have thought a piece of information like this one couldn’t be waterboarded out of me, but here I am. Giving it out for free. “I tried to lick one of your worn shirts. Around the neck.”
Dear Koen: Roses are red Violets are blue I’m about to undergo a period of enhanced sexual receptivity in which I will require the assistance of a compatible partner Could that perhaps be you?
“The truth is, if you decide to spend your Heat with someone else, they’ll have to chain me at the bottom of a well and seal its mouth with concrete.”
“My entire life is made of fucking lines. And you’re blowing past all of them.”
“You’re my mate, but I’m not yours. There will be other keys for you.”
Koen ;(
“There’s this voice in my head, screaming at me that I should hold you down and knot you and shred your gland until it’ll scar in the shape of my teeth, and I’m trying very hard to muffle it.”
Bless the normalization of AO3.
“Serena.” I hear the blurry edge of his smile. A quiet sigh. “I would throw away my pack, my life, and my entire world for you. Which is the exact reason I cannot have you.”
“But why are we part wolves? Why are there no werebutterflies, or werecrabs? What’s so special about wolves?”
Serena asking the real questions.
“It’s not fair. That they won’t allow you to—” Fall in love. Have a family. A chance at happiness. A chance with me. “It’s inhumane.”
To Koen, the covenant is not something that’s been imposed by the huddle leaders—an arbitrary, unjust restraint. To him, it’s a guarantee that history won’t repeat itself. And that guarantee has never mattered more than it does now, with the cult threatening the Northwest once again. And the last thing I want is to ask him to make an impossible choice.
“Why was she with the cul—excuse me, this totally legitimate social club?”
“Your father would have enjoyed you. This humor of yours, you get it from our side of the family.” “Actually, I get it from the need to proactively cope with a staggering amount of unprocessed trauma. Back to Fiona, please.”
“The Harrowing? When the Weres from the Northwest came after the Favored and murdered Constantine.”
Koen sits back. “Lady, fuck you and your tea.”
My father killed Koen’s mother. My father killed Koen’s father. My father killed thousands of Weres, including Brenna’s, Amanda’s, Saul’s, and Jorma’s families. My father is the reason Koen was forced to become Alpha at fifteen. My father.
And then Irene smiles sweetly, and asks, “Out of curiosity, Alpha. How long have you known that you killed her mother?”
He sits quietly, looking up at me like I’m a queen. His life and death are but my decision. He wouldn’t dream of objecting. If I want to carve his heart out of his chest, he’ll crack his rib cage open and lie prone for me.
“Happy?” Laughter bubbles out of me. “The dude who constantly looks like he’s a hairbreadth from slashing every tire in the universe?”
I lift my fists. “Right or left?” He snorts. “Fuck this losing game.”
“Don’t…I’m sure it’s pretty. My instincts don’t really lean toward the aesthetics and architectural integrity of nesting.” I frown. “What instincts do you have?” “They are much less wholesome.” His laugh is a half groan. “Less about making nests, and more about…wrecking them.”
I clear my throat. “I think Misery may have tried to warn me.” “About knots.”
“If someone had given me a piece of paper and asked me to list everything I liked, everything I dreamed of, everything that I was sure would make me happy, you would have been the final product of it.”
Girls in Heat only get what they ask for if they finish their water.
“It only happens when we’re with our mates.” His pecs rise, then fall as he catches his breath. “Or after we find them, anyway.”
He never says that he loves me, but it’s written all over my skin.
cumbucket,
“Things have changed.” “Things—nothing has changed. You love the Northwest more than anything.” “Not more than anything, Serena.”
“You are the heart of this pack, Koen.” He nods. Even as he says, “And you are mine, Serena.”
“I read your letter.” “My…?” “The one on your desk. With my name on it. It changes everything, Serena.”
I feel close to you. So much so, sometimes I wonder if fate really does exist. When you’re around, the universe feels more bearable. This mate business—does it feel like I have you in my palm? Like we’re tethered to each other? Like I changed you at the nuclear level? Asking for a friend.
cumballs
fuckwaffle
fuckwaffles.”
“I’d be bait worth her while. I could set up a meeting with her, tell her that I changed my mind about the Favored.”
This is the THIRD time she asks to be bait for a plot device by the way.
His eyes close. “You are mine. My mate. My—”
I thrash around a little, mostly for show, but this is cathartic. I’ve never had a family to disappoint before, and it’s a bit of a power trip. Lots of fun. I don’t understand what Misery has been going on about.
fuckwaffles
“I think it does affect me. I think you make me a better leader.” His smile widens. “You make my world better, for sure. And mate or not, I wouldn’t love you half as much if you weren’t the kind of person who deserves it.”
He sighs. Tightens his hold on me. “Such a fucking nuisance.” I wonder why it took me until this very moment to realize that it’s been his way of saying I love you all along.
Just be fucking patient, he snarls at himself. You’re not the center of the fucking world. She is.
He would die for her, and he would kill for her. More importantly, he will live for her. She’ll be the purpose driving every second of his every day.
